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Livia has long been a campaigner for sustainability and ethics
while championing the real values of the aesthetic world. Her work is
innovative and impactful and she is a true modernconscious woman.

As Creative Director of Eco-Age, a brand consultancy that enables
businesses to achieve growth and add value through sustainability, she launched the Green Carpet Challenge (GCC®) in December 2009 to raise the
profile of sustainable fashion and address the huge issues of its sourcing and
supply. The GCC® enables celebrities and style-setters to wear sustainable
fashion to red carpet events, and today involves the top fashion designers
internationally and an array of A List celebrities at the biggest red carpet awards
worldwide.

Livia is an Oxfam Global Ambassador, travelling to Ethiopia, Kenya,
Bangladesh and Zambia and hosting many high profile events in London. She is also
a founder of Annie Lennox’s ‘The Circle’, a powerful women’s advocacy group
that works with Oxfam to help fight poverty and inequality.

In November 2012 she became a ‘Leader of Change 2012’, awarded by
the UN Foundation for Global Change, and in September 2013 she received the UN
Fashion 4 Development Award.

In October 2013 Livia received the ‘Green Award’ at the Harper’s Bazaar
Women of the Year Awards 2013. It was presented to her by long-standing friend
and supporter of the GCC Tom Ford, in recognition of Livia’s contribution to
the growing focus on sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry.

A Doctor of Humanities, she lives in London with her husband, the
actor Colin Firth and two children.

I caught up with
Livia after her successful run at New York Fashion Week.

Livia Firth in conversation with Christopher Connors:

Where do you go to
contemplate and reflect on everything you are achieving?

At home. In my bedroom. In the 10 minutes peace after the
kids are off to school and I go off to work.

How do create more
stillness for yourself?

I try to create it inside myself, as outside is always on
the move! It’s tough and meditation helps me to focus and try to keep a
balance. Obviously sometimes it’s more easily said than done, but I do try!

Do you meditate?
If so how does it serve you? Are there any particular philosophies, books etc.
which have brought you insight along the way?

I studied comparative religions at
university back in my youth – that opened a lot of doors inside myself. I also
practiced shamanism, yoga, and mediation. And I love them all. And the book I
absolutely adore, it’s a recommendation by my friend Sam Roddick – Hafiz. He is a great prophet and
his poems are full of humour, which is something fundamental in everyone’s
life. Without a sense of humour you are lost. Or incredibly boring!

Consciousness is
becoming a greater phenomenon in our life? How do you see that happening?

Funny you say that! I just finished reading a fascinating
book: The Field, by Lynne McTaggart, precisely on collective consciousness…

How would you
define the modernconscious generation?

Active.

I really admire
you for integrating a conscious and cool message through the GCC, what do you
want it to ultimately achieve?

To reconnect us with what we wear – the stories behind the
women and men who make our clothes. And, as a result, to consume less.

Who do you most
admire for their ‘presence’ in the world?

It’s such a long list that you will need an entire book!
Where do we start from? The world is full of wonderful amazing people. Start
with the friends and colleagues around you.